Johannesburg – Diplomatic tensions between Iran and Kenya have risen after Tehran recalled its ambassador to Nairobi over the weekend following a Kenyan court decision to uphold a jail term for two Iranians convicted of planning bombing attacks in the East African country.
On Monday the Middle East Monitor (Memo) reported that Iran had also lodged a formal complaint with the Kenyan ambassador in Tehran regarding the case of Ahmad Abolfathi and Sayad Mansour Mousavi.
The two men were arrested in June 2012 and convicted a year later of planning bomb attacks and possessing 15 kg of military-grade RDX explosives.
Their conviction also raised concerns about possible Iranian plans to strike targets in the East African nation.
Kenyan investigators say the men may have had links to the Quds Force, the elite extra-territorial special forces arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
However, their life sentences were reduced in 2016 by a Kenyan judge to 15 years.
The souring of diplomatic relations between the two countries followed the decision by the Kenyan court last Friday to uphold their sentences instead of freeing them as was expected to be the case.